20 A HUNTING CATECHISM 



into the very middle of the pack which had just 

 checked on the far side of the hedge, and — 

 tumbled off ! Sir Charles galloped up to the 

 fence and looked over, and now, thought we, 

 he will just "let him have it" for overriding 



the hounds, and we listened intently. " I'm " 



began Sir Charles, " I'm very glad of it ! " and 

 that was all the rebuke the culprit got, but he 

 never forgot it. 



On another occasion a stranger was particularly 

 annoying in the way he kept thrusting after the 

 hounds, and at length Sir Charles could stand it 

 no longer. Galloping up to him, he held out his 

 horn and exclaimed, " Here, sir, you take the 

 horn ! We cannot both hunt the hounds ! " upon 

 which the abashed stranger slunk back amongst 

 the field, and ceased to give any further trouble. 



Though the M.F.H. expects obedience from his 

 subscribers, who willingly acknowledge his sway 

 if they have confidence in him, he should be very 

 careful not to give them cause for grumbling and 

 nursing a grievance. For instance, it was scarcely 

 judicious on the part of a well-known M.F.H. 

 to gratuitously inform his largest subscriber, 

 possessed also of most important coverts, that 

 when the hounds met at a certain place in a few 

 days' time they would first draw a famous gorse- 

 covert, some three miles in the direction in which 

 the said subscriber would come, and therefore if 

 he waited there he would be saved that distance ; 

 and then when the day came, and the subscriber 

 had informed privately various friends from his 

 part of the country of the " tip " he had received, 

 so that all waited there together — it was not, 

 I say, a wise thing on the part of the M.F.H. to 

 go and draw a pet covert some three miles in the 



